I would say that corrupted is something like nemesis was for rare mobs. That it actually rolls from a specific "corrupted" pool of affixes/suffixes, or likely it affects either weapon slots or the implicit feature of the item.

this whole corruption thing, the most logical way to implement it would be via a new currency
normal questing maps would have their aesthetics changed, end game maps can be corrupted to give corrupted mods (new set of mods only obtainable via new currency)

the new currency would be applicable to all items except other orbs
white slots can be obtained this way (read: imba, OP) but the downside is it can have a chance to screw with the implicit mods on the item

the new unset ring having one slot only? i dont think theres much use for just one slot on rings with no mods. so there could be new gems that give mods. imba? yes. but not if they are white gems that can only be socketed into white slots.
that would also give incentives to white slotting the lone slot in a say 6S5L item. which gives the previously useless slot a chance to be useful.

if all these are true, then the conclusion is the new currency would be common or somewhat obtainable via vendor recipe

I may be the only dissenter here and I'm ok with that, but I just have to say; if the corruptions require repairing of items with even more chroms or fuses or whatever then I am likely to just stop playing PoE since I already spend most my time just trying to collect those things to raise my useless gear to an acceptable level of uselessness and not actually playing the game.

Please don't disappoint.

The devs have stated in the past (Somewhere, good luck finding the thread) that they are very much against the durability thing, so I doubt that will be an issue.

There are 3 things obvious in the screenshot:
1. The corrupted Blackheart ring now has cast speed instead of physical damage.
2. The char is next to a corrupted area.
3. None of the chars items have sockets.

If an item becomes, or is, corrupted by being in a corrupted area then a) we will have no choice as to the affect of the corruption... I say this because rings do not have sockets that would allow conversion b) it seems obvious that after corruption the sockets an item had are now unavailable.

It really does look like corrupted items will require repair or refitting after becoming corrupted and if the sockets an item had have disappeared or been used to somehow re-roll the item then it's a safe bet that the skill gems that were in those sockets are gone as well.

My feelings for corrupted: Path of exile doesn't like to be forgiving. Following that logic I believe that corruption will be a randomly generated affix to your gear. Each time you are hit by an enemy there will be a 0.1% chance to randomly corrupt one piece of gear you are wearing.

The gear doesn't have to disintigrate or wear out. Just imagine you have your character decked out and doing high maps and bam your +97hp ring turns into +10 light radius.

Maybe corrupted means: when you equip it first time, you will get a random negative property (-% resistance, casting speed, whatever) that will last for an hour, and you cannot unequip it anymore. But you will also get a positive random property for this duration.

This gives player an option to risk and try this item multiple times to get the best effect. Once you unequip it, the random properties will reset, so you can try it again.